Saturday, December 18, 2010

Admissions Nightmare!

I definitely anticipated overwhelming number of applicants for our first batch of students at Sarswati Peace School but not like the report I got from the field today. Just yesterday alone more than 80 forms were filled in. More than 200 forms have been filled in the last three days. We only have spot for 250 students and we are distributing 500 forms at this point. When my good friend Nicholas Kang will be here in the last week of December, we will travel to the village and select the students. I am still trying to figure out ways and means to make parents understand whose children will not be admitted this year. Everyone is hoping to admit their children and for that we need at least double our planned resources and we do not have the resources to do just that. It seems like our 500 forms will be gone in less than a week. I can see some of the parents ready to thrash me in public. I need to polish my conflict resolution and negotiation skills used during purchase of our school land.

A young girl with her brother. She cannot go to school as she has to take care of her brother. The young brother will be sent to school once he is four but the girl has to stay home. We need to change this.

On the other hand, we are receiving applicants from extremely remote villages within Gorkha district. Just this morning, four parents came from Lapu Village in Northern part of our district that boarders with Tibet. They have to walk for four straight days to reach our village. They want to admit their children and I just cannot say no. I am excited that even in those places they now realize the importance of quality education and what it means to them and to their families.

We hope to provide opportunities to many of children from remotest part of our district and beyond.

Fever, chest infection, and cough and cold have been pulling me down for several days now.